Athlete, skateboarder, entrepreneur, surfer and now consummate filmmaker. Stacy Peralta has beaten the sophomore slump with his documentary about the history of surfing, Riding Giants.

Peralta has always been into underground cultures. He helped begat skateboarding back in the day, then documented the culture in his award winning documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Now hes turned his all seeing eye towards one of his other passions, surfing. Riding Giants has already garnered acclaim when it opened at this years Sundance Film Festival.

Riding Giants takes us along surfing's timeline from its early Polynesian roots, to its rebirth in the early 20th Century, to the development of a fledgling surf culture along the coast of Southern California in the 1940s. The film highlights surfers such as Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama and Titus Kinimaka.

Daniel Robert Epstein: I didnt realize you were as into surfing as much as you are skateboarding.

Stacey Peralta: Yeah, I wanted to be a professional surfer and I would have gone in that direction had it not been for skateboarding scooping us away. All of us that were in Dogtown [and Z-Boys] were headed that way. But skateboarding offered so much more than surfing and the opportunities were there.

DRE: When did you start meeting all these surfers that are in the movie?

SP: I had met Laird [Hamilton] once in the 80s when I had my skateboarding company so we knew of each other. I also knew Sam George and I had met Greg Noll back then. But I met him again sometime in 2001. He was so funny and charismatic that I thought I could make a film on him. Thats where I got the idea. Once I knew I was going to make the film I knew I had to get Laird. When we met again he was working on a surfing movie and we just decided to pool our resources.

DRE: Obviously you had a little more money to make Riding Giants than you did to make Dogtown. If you had picked, lets say, entomology as your latest documentary subject, would you have been able to do that?

SP: No and it wasnt a slam-dunk to make this either. It took a year to get financing. I had to write proposals, treatments and the whole thing. But fortunately Laird had a connection with somebody who wanted to finance a surf film so he already had something going. It was just a matter of going to that financier and presenting him with the right surf film. Once we did that he said yes. A lot of my friends think it was easy but it never is.

DRE: Where did you come up with the idea to make those photos three-dimensional?

SP: We saw the initial idea of that in The Kid Stays In the Picture where they did some work like that. We had a guy come to us and say he could take that idea and make it like you're on acid. We gave him some photographs. For the two-minute intro I had another company take these postcards, give them an old film look and make it look like we could walk inside them. We had a bit more money to up the ante in terms of production value.

DRE: You interviewed John Milius because he directed the surfing movie Big Wednesday [released in 1978]. I actually just spoke to someone who interviewed John Milius for the documentary Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. They said he likes to project thats he a tough guy but hes really a pussycat.

SP: I have a soft spot for John because Im a history buff and hes a real historian. Hes taken me out to dinner and he can quote so many books and historic moments. Is he a tough guy? Hes had some tough moments in his life but he is a real great guy.

DRE: Where did all that amazing and rare surfing footage come from?

SP: Its partially from the surfers. But surfing has a whole independent film movement that started in the 50s. Having been a surfer I knew roughly which old surf guys had which film libraries. The problem was just getting to them and convincing them to trust me. Dogtown helped a lot because I would give them the DVD to watch. To a certain extent when you're a documentarian you are also an investigative journalist because you are constantly trying to get through doors that dont swing open easily.

DRE: The surfers in your movie are the most popular guys in the sports. Are there contingents of surfers that dont believe that Greg Noll got on that famous wave and hate all these guys just for being popular?

SP: Im sure they exist. But I dont know if anyone denies Greg Nolls wave because it is a fact that it was the biggest swell of the century, it is a fact that he did go out there by himself and there were guys on the beach that did say they saw him catch that wave.

Im sure there are tribes of surfers in places that dont want films like this to exist because they dont want to share their bounty, but I didnt make the film for them. Im sorry whatever problems I caused their local break.

DRE: Was it difficult to make a story out of all the material?

SP: Setting off to do a film to a certain extent is like jumping off a cliff. Id love to say; yeah I knew exactly what the film was going to be. I had it laid out but you never know if the layout you have is correct. This film is a three act structure with the first act being the real history, the second act is the Renaissance and the death of Mark Foo and the third act is the epiphany with the big waves. Because of the way it unfolded we had the second act ready to cut first. When it came together we thought it was a good act and we didnt think it was going to be. Then we set it aside, started working on the third act, which we thought would come together like butter. But that wasnt working. Finally I had to tell [editor] Paul [Crowder] to put it aside and I thought I was in deep trouble. Then Paul decided he was going to slam together the first act as quick as possible to get the music in there. Then we thought that looked fabulous. So then we went back to the third act and gave it a complete facelift, shot some more interviews and we went back to figure out the third act. It laid itself out and came together. There was a moment where I had to tell myself not to panic. I thought I was going to be a one trick pony but now Im really proud of myself for hanging in there.

DRE: A lot of people talk about the Zen of surfing, which is something I will never understand. Is there a Zen to filmmaking?

SP: Yeah and I think it goes with any creative endeavor. Obviously you have to have an ego and a strong point of view to make a film. But what Ive really come to understand, thanks to these films, is that you really have to be careful about being too dogmatic about your ideas. You come to these intersections constantly when you're making a film where you are derailed and are not going down the track you are intended to but going down another track. Its at those moments where you have to be gentle and delicate with your creative process because what will happen is if you listen carefully that new track, nine times out of ten, is a better one. The film takes on a life of its own and you have to adjust to it. Those are the Zen moments because you are no longer in charge and you have to surrender to what the film wants to become.

DRE: I got to speak with Michael Tolkin and he was willing to talk about Gleaming the Cube. Were those films you worked on back then like Gleaming the Cube and Police Academy 4 [Citizens on Patrol] where you got your taste for filmmaking?

SP: I learned how to become a filmmaker from writing, directing and editing my own films for my skateboard company. Because those films did well I started getting opportunities to become a second unit director.

DRE: You were probably one of the first guys to do tracking non-Steadicam shots.

SP: I dont mean to say this in a big way but I was THE first. Before the handheld video I made all my videos on inch video. Meaning I had this giant camera with this big pipe that went down to this huge recorder. I figured out a way to get the recorder on my back, hold the camera and just skate. That went from there to 35 mm Panaflex and Arris.

Now I see that its part of kids genetic makeup to skate with a camera in their hands.

DRE: That brings up the issue of Jackass. Has that been good or bad for the skateboard culture?

SP: I dont want to put them down but I dont like that stuff. I think its easy and its not smart therefore it doesnt interest me. I know Im in the minority and I dont want to say that as a goody two shoes but I think its just too easy.

DRE: How easy was it transitioning from skateboarding to businessman?

SP: It was pretty natural just because I was so eager to do things. It gave me a chance to keep my mind busy.

DRE: What did you do for Mr. Show with Bob and David?

SP: Its been so long but I directed a whole bunch of the shorts for them. I know one of them had Kato Kaelin in it. I also worked with Bob and David before that helping them put shorts together for the live show, which preceded the HBO show.

DRE: How did you all hook up?

SP: We hooked up via [executive producer/director of Mr. Show] Troy Miller; hes a good friend of mine.

DRE: They arent friends anymore.

SP: Yeah I guess they had a falling out over the movie [Run Ronnie Run]. In the military Troy would have been a general.

DRE: Whats the status of Lords of Dogtown?

SP: This is the final week of production. Catherine Hardwicke directed and I wrote the screenplay. Catherine has kept it very wild style looking. Its gritty and fast moving. Its a studio film that looks like an independent.

DRE: Did Roger Avary tweak your script?

SP: No, when David Fincher was going to direct he brought Roger on. When David left and Catherine came on she read my script and said there was nothing wrong with it.

DRE: Did you spend much time on set?

SP: Catherine wanted me on all the time but I couldnt do it. I showed up about ten times.

DRE: Did you meet the guy thats playing you [John Robinson]?

SP: Yeah. The few times I went there it was like going into triple Twilight Zone. Not only was the setting everything I remembered. Then Im looking at the kid who is me, I was just looking around going Holy shit, this is too weird.